


Just Like You

by Maximum_Quinn



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, Star Wars AU - Soft Wars, alpha 17 regrets the few life choices he has been allowed to make thus far, the cadets don't have their names yet but they do have big personalities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:27:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29833236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maximum_Quinn/pseuds/Maximum_Quinn
Summary: Alpha-17 isn't entirely sure why these particular cadets have been assigned to him. He also isn't entirely sure what todowith them.The one thing he does know for sure is that at some point in the future, they're going to reap the chaos that they're currently sowing.
Comments: 22
Kudos: 86
Collections: Open Source Soft Wars





	Just Like You

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Slightly Out Of Spec](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26349499) by [Project0506](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Project0506/pseuds/Project0506). 



> I binged the entirety of ["Soft Wars" by Project0506](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683775) and have fallen deeply in love with the entire idea of Squad Shebs - after getting the blessing from Projie, I'm thrilled to post my little fic inspired by this fantastic 'verse. Thank you again!
> 
> Twos-Four: CC-2224, Cody  
> Thirty-Sixes: CC-3636, Wolffe  
> Fifty-Four: CC-6454, Ponds  
> Fifty-Fifty-Two: CC-5052, Bly
> 
> Ten-Sixteen: CC-1016, Colt

"I'm going to  _ karking kill you." _

"Be quiet -"

"This is the  _ dumbest  _ thing you have  _ ever _ -"

_ "Shut up!" _

The whispers were treading the line between actual whispers and normal volume.

Alpha-17 made a mental note to run his brats - er, his  _ cadets _ through another stealth module.

A muffled thump and some creative swearing.

He upped that to  _ two _ stealth modules.

“I’m gonna replace you with Ten-Sixteen,” someone hissed furiously.  _ “He’s _ got something between his ears that isn’t  _ polycotton.” _

“You wouldn’t  _ dare.” _

_ “Watch me.” _

There was the unmistakable sound of one small body hurling itself into another small body and slamming against the floor.

17 took a long, slow breath, and finally opened the door to the dorms where his  _ sheb’ike _ were supposed to be quietly studying - and, dear stars, when had he started to think of them as  _ his? _

He was well and truly karked.

Inside, he found two of the cadets sitting on the third, while the fourth looked on with wide eyes. All of them froze as he entered the room, and the only sound was the distant rumble of thunder from the near-perpetual storm raging outside the dome.

17 sighed. “Thirty-Sixes, Fifty-Four, get off Twos-Four.”

“But -”

_ “Now.” _

The two cadets rolled off their brother. 17 pointedly ignored the way Thirty-Sixes made sure to dig his heel into Twos-Four’s kidney as he did so.  _ And _ the way Twos-Four pinched the back of Thirty-Sixes’ knee in retaliation. Just like how he was ignoring the headache building behind his eyes which was shaped, coincidentally enough, like four troublesome cadets.

“Fifty-Fifty-Two,” 17 said, turning his attention to the last cadet, still sitting on his bunk.

“17?”

“Why didn’t you stop them?”

Fifty-Fifty-Two gave him a dry look - where in the world had he picked  _ that _ up already? “Because I didn’t want to be sat on.”

17 bit back another sigh. “Always help each other - whatever else is going on, you always need to have each other’s backs. And that means that you two -” He knocked Thirty-Sixes’ head against Fifty-Four’s, just hard enough to create a hollow sort of  _ bonk _ sound. “- shouldn’t gang up on Twos-Four. At least, not until you’ve all gone through two-on-one combat training.”

A sullen chorus of ‘yessir’ drifted up from the group.

“And  _ no one _ is being replaced,” he stressed. “I couldn’t get rid of you  _ sheb’ike _ if I tried.”

Twos-Four lit up, and 17 didn’t know why until - oh _ no. _

“Don’t -”

_ “Sheb’ike?” _ Twos-Four repeated, going so far as to tilt his head to the side like a tooka kit.

“What’s  _ sheb’ike _ mean?” Thirty-Sixes asked, smile spreading across his face.

_ “Sheb’ika _ is bottom,” Fifty-Fifty-Two said, eyes as wide as they could go. “So it must be close to that.”

Fifty-Four was silent, as usual, but he tilted his head like Twos-Four and widened his eyes for maximum effectiveness.

“It’s - I -  _ don’t  _ -” 17 was floundering. He knew it, and, even worse, the cadets knew it.

“You don’t know what it means?” Twos-Four asked, radiating innocence. “That’s okay, we can go ask 6, I’m sure  _ he’ll _ tell us what  _ sheb’ike _ means.”

17 felt his eye twitch. “Do  _ not _ go looking for 6.”

Call it a matter of personal pride, but these four cadets were  _ his, _ damnit, and regardless of how much he wanted to strangle them at any given moment, he wasn’t going to let  _ anyone _ else,  _ especially _ another Alpha, do anything to jeopardize his position as their commander.

“Then tell us what it  _ means!” _ Thirty-Sixes said, in something between a whine and a howl.

17 ran a hand over his face and wondered what he had done to deserve this. 

“Little… butts,” he finally acquiesced. “It means little butts.” No way in  _ hell _ was he teaching them the word ‘ass’ in Basic.

He mostly expected them to be offended. Or even to rush off to share this  _ fun new word _ with the rest of their agemates.

He  _ didn’t _ expect Twos-Four to bust out laughing, followed by the other three, repeating the word and definition, causing them to laugh even  _ harder. _

Why were his cadets so kriffing  _ weird? _

17 had a brief moment of crisis, wondering why  _ this _ was his lot in life, but was quickly shaken out of it by the sound of three little voices chanting,  _ “Squad Shebs! Squad Shebs!” _

“You are  _ not _ -”

“Yeah we are!” Twos-Four crowed triumphantly, throwing his hands in the air and narrowly avoiding giving Thirty-Sixes a black eye. “We’re Squad Shebs now, an’ you can’t complain about it, ‘cause we learned  _ shebs _ from you!”

17 felt his eye twitch again. Maybe he should name Twos-Four something like Twitch in retaliation. Or Headache. Little brat deserved it…

Very deliberately, 17 reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“One day,” he said, in a low, mildly threatening grumble, “I hope you end up with cadets  _ just like you.” _


End file.
